Success on the first try!There were some dry spots on the dough but got it rolled very thin. Some cornmeal on the peel, docked the dough with a fork, turned over about 1/2" of the edge, added a bit of olive oil. Par baked for 4 minutes on a hot stone. Sauce, sausage, pepperoni, sautéed 'shrooms, and cheese. Back in the oven for about 8 minutes, then broiled on high to crisp the top. I like crispy crust, some of the edges were a bit over browned. Fresh arugula on top for more veg.

What I learned: cracker crust shouldn't be overloaded. A pound of cheese + everything else was too heavy.Scrappy dough, now I understand Used the KA mixer as recommendedDark stone = dark crust

I'll make it again, used some KAF pizza dough flavoring. Next time it'll be Chicago style.

Thanks for all the info, finally got the crust I've been looking for. Sorry, no pics this time.

What the....heck is go'in on with this forum . Where's the man in charge.....

Congrats Condolini on your first try being a success! I know that's got to be a great feeling...keep up the good work. You know, it is prohibited to post about Chicago style without including pics so I am looking forward to your next success.

Thx Bob, I'll be better prepared next time! Also hadn't looked to see rules of posting pics so didn't want to do it incorrectly. Now that I found my camera after my vaca in January...

Which Chicago should I start with, Lou Malnati or Home Run Inn? Haven't had HRI for 30 years until I tried one of their frozen ones. It was NASTY!

Yeah, they leave a bit to be desired.I was only teasing about pic posting rules Condolini so please don't go knocking yourself out trying to find a pic posting rules list....sorry about that.

Hey, for your first Chicago pizza, if you like (or want to try)Deep Dish pizza then I would recommend a recipe from either member "loowaters", "BTB", or "vcb". Make sure to try one that has semolina flour in the recipe.

I have dabbled here in the past. Been a couple years since I was here. I was cooking a lot on my komado style cooker Bubba Keg (very similar to Big Green Egg).

I recently got the bug to do pizza again. So, I tried this recipe. I let it rise about 22 hrs and used my Bubba Keg with a pizza stone (actually a kiln shelf). Unfortunately, I let the keg get down to about 425 and it didn't get the crispy texture I wanted even though I pre-cooked the crust 4 mins first. Next time 550F

In case anybody is thinking about doing it, one thing I found out from experience is that you really should parbake the crust in the pan on a preheated stone at 500F -- not just on a rack. A few weeks ago I made pizzas for me and a buddy who was visiting, and was in kind of a hurry so I wanted to parbake both crusts at the same time. There wasn't room on the stone for both pans, so I parbaked his on the stone and mine on a rack above it.

The difference in results was amazing -- his crust puffed up like I had been seeing. My crust, while OK, didn't have the little pillows puffed up between the docking. It was pretty flat. It must be all the heat stored in the stone giving some extra punch.

Having had a lot more experience with this, I now know I can make those skins one at a time on the stone and then after they've had the sauce and toppings added, bake them all in one go either on the rack or stone. Getting the puffing at the parbaking stage is critical -- when I do the lamination with a little olive oil sprayed between the layers as I mentioned in the earlier comment in this thread, then parbake on the hot stone, it works PERFECTLY. I just have to plan ahead to make sure everything has time to get parbaked on the stone -- avoiding bottlenecks in the process when making more than one pizza.

Over on our bbq forum, there are some really good cooks that have been here as well. Some of the more progressive ones are going with a steel plate instead of a stone. I'm going to give it a try in my charcoal fired grill.

In case anybody is thinking about doing it, one thing I found out from experience is that you really should parbake the crust in the pan on a preheated stone at 500F -- not just on a rack. A few weeks ago I made pizzas for me and a buddy who was visiting, and was in kind of a hurry so I wanted to parbake both crusts at the same time. There wasn't room on the stone for both pans, so I parbaked his on the stone and mine on a rack above it.

The difference in results was amazing -- his crust puffed up like I had been seeing. My crust, while OK, didn't have the little pillows puffed up between the docking. It was pretty flat. It must be all the heat stored in the stone giving some extra punch.

Having had a lot more experience with this, I now know I can make those skins one at a time on the stone and then after they've had the sauce and toppings added, bake them all in one go either on the rack or stone. Getting the puffing at the parbaking stage is critical -- when I do the lamination with a little olive oil sprayed between the layers as I mentioned in the earlier comment in this thread, then parbake on the hot stone, it works PERFECTLY. I just have to plan ahead to make sure everything has time to get parbaked on the stone -- avoiding bottlenecks in the process when making more than one pizza.

Klankster,That is an extremely important tip that I'm not sure many are really aware of....and as you said, you found out about it by accident, literally. Very helpful, good post.

Sometime you might try using a flour with a somewhat higher protein content, such as the General Mills Better for Bread flour (formerly called Harvest King flour at the retail level). I personally preferred that flour for the cracker style over all-purpose flour.

Chuck, the steel plate looks AWESOME. That's some serious equipment, and it looks like it works great -- that crust is perfect. Great idea!

As for flour, I'm currently using a blend of 5oz of bread flour + 11oz of King Arthur "Lancelot" hi-gluten flour in this recipe, and have been pretty happy with it, but will keep experimenting. I tend to want it as crispy and crunchy as possible.

Saturday night is traditionally my pizza night here, but instead of making a pizza for myself tonight, I made three batches of this dough this morning and we're having 6 friends over tomorrow afternoon for a pizza party -- should be a lot of fun, since I have this recipe and the procedures down pat.

Today I started more dough. I decided to venture from the orig recipe. First, I used a rapid dry yeast. I sub'd Firestone Double Barrel Ale for the water. I warmed the beer to 90f to make the yeast work. I also changed the salt from 1 teaspoon to 1 1/2 teaspoon. 4 hrs later I couldn't wait anymore. The dough had risen very well and the smell was fantastic. I prebaked the skin at 550f for 4 mins on my 1/4" steel. Then topped it and finished at 550f for 6 mins. The flavor was great but it was overcooked.

Tonight I did another pie for my wife that worked late today from the same batch of dough. I adjusted the times. 3 min prebake, 4 min finish with toppings. That was just about perfect. The beer definitely adds flavor that comes thru as a more yeasty taste and possibly a hint of maltyness. I am guessing the beer reacts more to the yeast than water since it foamed up when I mixed in the yeast to the warmed beer. The flavor was also bigger after 8 hrs. But still excellent at 4 hrs. I'll try one at 24 hrs tomorrow.

One other change I made was to move the steel down to the lowest rack just above the heating element.

Peter I used King Arthur Bread flour. Is GM Better for Bread a better choice for a cracker crust?